Burma...
I just came back from Burma 3 days ago. All of my family was kinda afraid of me going there, especially because in the group were buddhist monks. Even if so many people didn't pay any attention to it in September, some people do remember the crackdown in Myanmar, the beaten-up monks, the killed journalists and the detained pacific demonstrators. And with these images in mind, Burma didn't seem like the perfect place to go...I do agree with them, and I was kinda scared to go. During the Monks-led demonstrations and the crackdown, I was in Sumatra and hardly able to get informations on all of this. Unknown is usually scary, especially in this kind of situation.
And yet I wanted to go... I know Aung SanSuu Kyi said not to go to her country, in order not to support the junta. But I'm more and more feeling like I have to teach my relatives in France and elsewhere how life is here. I don't care being in danger sometimes, if it can help open eyes and make this world a better one.
Burma Junta is one of the worst in the world, over-looked by many countries and just forgotten by so many people, who concentrate much more on China and North Korea. Yet, China is one of the main supporters of the junta, getting energy and goods for a really cheap price, in exchange for its protection on the international stage. During the crackdown in September, the UN were prevented from any real action and resolution by the veto of China...
I have been there only 4 days but I received so much from the people there and from the monks I was with, I could just not go back and forget. I then looked on internet for more informations about September crackdown, and I just began to cry in front of my computer. The guys on the streets, these monks on the videos, they are not the guys I met and the monks I chant with. But it's all the same. They are the people of Burma, the people I met and to whom I'm now connected in my heart.
Knowledge is power. And if you can forget the past, let's never forget the present... They need our voice.